MPAA Still More Focused On Those Darn 'Pirates' Rather Than Making Money
from the good-luck-with-that dept
It appears that the MPAA's whac-a-mole game of pointlessness continues. As a whole bunch of you have been submitting, the MPAA's international arm (just chop off the last "A" in the name and you get the MPA) is asking a court in the UK to issue an injunction forcing ISP BT to block everyone's access to Newzbin. Newzbin, of course, is a Usenet aggregator, that was found liable for infringement via its service, in large part because the site's staffers actively promoted that you could use the service to infringe. This was no surprise, as courts don't look kindly on encouraging people to infringe. What then followed was a bizarre and convoluted mess, in which Newzbin reappeared -- though it's not entirely clear how or who was behind it.So, now, the MPA has decided that it's easier to just try to block access to it. Apparently the UK already has a "Great Firewall" type of system that requires ISPs to block access to sites deemed to be child porn sites, and the MPA says that it should be simple to start censoring "pirate" sites that it doesn't like as well. Of course, if you don't see the slippery slope there, you probably missed the story about how a list of "pirate sites" to be blocked, which was put together for ad giant GroupM with help from MPAA members Viacom and Warner Bros., included such evil sites as the Internet Archive, Vimeo and SoundCloud. How long until the MPAA asks them to be blocked from the UK as well? Of course, this is what happens when "fighting piracy," rather than "helping studios adapt and make money" is your number one priority. You end up with an entire "content protection" division with multiple vice presidents... but no "here's how we adapt and make money" division. And all those "content protection" lawyers have to have something to do, so why not press for blanket censorship? It sure beats working...
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Filed Under: access, censorship, mpa, mpaa, uk
Companies: bt, mpa, mpaa, newzbin
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Those fools! They're going to regret getting their way!
If you don't take the politics / corruption / police state into account, then your notions are irrelevant.
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The joke is on the MPAA who is fighting piracy like Don Quixote fights windmills.
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We've had stories about copyright infringement based on similar ideas.
We've had stories based on trying to shut down websites for torrents.
We've had stories of piracy costing the industry based on a 1:1 download of files.
It's arguably cost the trade industries more money to fight all of the websites, all of the technology, and all of the civil rights of those gosh durned pirates that they're making into enemies. How hard would it be if the trade industries took a back seat, made a $10 license, and allowed technology to flourish, to actually stimulate the economy and progress than stopping it with the "but... but Piracy" speech?
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Sony backs US cybersecurity legislation
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"MPAA Still More Focused On Those Darn 'Pirates' Rather Than Making Money"
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When your headlines and stories are so biased, it's hard to take them seriously.
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Going after "pirates" costs money but arguably brings little or no net financial gain. Putting their efforts into actually making more money is a far smarter idea. The choice shouldn't be a hard one.
But you're right that it's not and either/or choice. Its choosing between making more money or not. Between pissing of fans and customers or not. Between providing a useful service to their members or not.
"When your headlines and stories are so biased, it's hard to take them seriously."
When your comments are so biased, it's hard to take them seriously. What's the difference? Why is bias not allowed in an opinion blog with open comments. Seems like a pretty weak and pointless complaint.
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Leave the regular citizens alone...
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It's not hard to understand why they would see working against piracy as a way to shore up the bottom line, and not a mutually exclusive exercise.
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Please do tell!!
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Sorry, I won't be going anywhere near your hose. Maybe you could ask the TSA....
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Also you seem to forget those people who find a movie on a torrent site and then go to the store to buy the dvds (has actually happened).
You seem to ignore the figures that people who pirate are also the ones who spend MORE on multimedia products, such as cds and dvds.
Getting rid of piracy does not and will not result in more sales.
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Such a laughably stupid comment that is so typical on this hilarious blog.
People steal the music they want off the internet all the time. They do so because no one is stopping them. Duh.
Most people are greedy by nature. They're not going to pay for something when they can get it free.
Denying life's realities just makes you people look silly.
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One sentence has nothing to do with the other.
"Most people are greedy by nature. They're not going to pay for something when they can get it free. "
Netflix's success disagrees with you.
"Denying life's realities just makes you people look silly."
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Who's denying reality, when you're making up your own?
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Copyright infringement also isn't stealing, but the copyrightards keep bringing that falsehood up, because it makes for a great soundbite and feeds that conservative underbelly-feeling, and smacks of truthiness. And people are being stopped by the RIAA, the MPAA and other organisations. It's just not helping the RIAA and the MPAA much, except set more bad blood, and causing more people to just download in retaliation. DUH.
Most people are greedy by nature, especially the entitled clusterfucks at the RIAA and the MPAA, who feel that we should pay 15 times for the same movie and music, Betamax, VHS, vinyl, cassette, cd, dvd, hddvd, bluray, digital download. We, the people, have been milked dry.
And despite the fact that they are making record sales even during times of recession, these clusterfuck-morons want more money.
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If the product was not desirable, people wouldn't share it. People want the product, and they are willing to take certain risks to obtain it. If the risk factor gets too high (you are likely to be sued) or the availability drops (the rippers and initial seeders are no longer able to do it), then thigns change.
What doesn't change is the desire for the product. Sure, in the short term, a lot of sour puss file traders will cuss and say "I will never buy from (insert company name here)". Just like the Sony stuff, most of the people bitching went offline to play their PS3s. The desire remains.
Nobody suggests for a second that 1 download equals 1 lost sale. But in the bigger scope of things, if 1 in 10 people would have paid for something but instead downloaded it for free because it was easy, safe, convenient, and well free, then the economics is clear.
Shutting down a major seeder or ripper, making the content less available, that could be the tipping point that moves the consumer away from file trading and back to legal, legit channels. Again, it isn't a direct purchase (movie ticket, CD, DVD, what have you), but also the other channels that bring income, from PPV to Netflix to broadcast TV.
No, one stopped file trader doesn't mean one more consumer. It really isn't about that guy, it's about the 10 or 100 or 1000 people he will share with. Once you start to grasp that, you will start to understand why going after file sharers is actually useful for rights holders.
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And I agree that uploading is the illegal act here, and that going after them is a good thing. But the copyright-maximalists have it wrong too, they have $$-signs in front of their eyes, and are eyeing their bulging wallets and complain that it isn't bulging more.
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Erm, I think you should listen to the arguments of those corporations you shill for, because that's exactly what they claim.
"that could be the tipping point that moves the consumer away from file trading and back to legal, legit channels"
But... it probably won't be, at least not on its own. You see, that only works if the only reason why people pirate is due to the "free" aspect or its availability.
However, people pirate for all sorts of reasons - regional restrictions, theatrical windowing, Netflix/Redbox windowing, high prices (i.e. they're willing to pay, but the price asked for new content is way too high), poor theatrical experiences, and so on. Often, it's just that they don't value the content enough - can't get it now? OK, I'll wait till it shows up on TV, don't want to pay for it...
By all means, deal with "piracy". But, it's never going away, as it's been here since the first recordable media was created and will be here until the last is available. Decreased availability may help, but nothing will work as well as removing the encouragement for them to pirate in the first place. You have to have some carrot to go with that stick...
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Duh, certainly not from the pirates.
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So why don't you just go without now? The new laws and regs are designed to reduce its availability online. Maybe you'll buy more, maybe not. But that fact doesn't justify taking something of value without just compensation of its owner.
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This argument is often condensed to "BUT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT!" It's a mental roadblock the labels cannot get past. They can't see that they can proceed with making money without trying to stamp out piracy - nobody and nothing is stopping them. Maybe their need for control is just too deep, I don't know.
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Yet, they refuse to offer me the alternative legal solutions. Netflix? Not allowed to service me and no equivalent service in my country. Hulu? The same. DVDs? Region coded, and often windowed to ridiculous degrees. Blu? Some major studios region code these too. Add that to the fact that I buy very little "blind" nowadays - I've been ripped off too many times to buy a full priced movie I haven't seen yet - and they're losing a lot of sales.
I *do* spend money on content, thank you very much, but little of it is major studio content. In fact, 7 of my last 10 purchases have been from Arrow Video, an excellent cult & horror label that's been releasing outstanding version of Italian & American movies. In fact, I'm currently in the process of collecting their entire catalogue since their output is uniformly excellent with all the extras & physical content you'd ever want, all available region free of course...
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I'm not saying don't concentrate on piracy - especially the commercial-scale stuff. But p*ssing into the wind to this scale is just a waste of money. Look at crime - plenty of things are illegal but still happen. Without becoming a police state, unfortunately they probably always will - so at some point, you have to draw a line. The trouble is, the **AAs keep trying to move the line, all the time whining about how 'hard done-by' they are, and still raking it in. Oh, and then there's how they lyingly claim it's all 'for the artists' when they rip those artists off possibly way more than the 'pirates' do.
It's a culture of entitlement and bullying complaining that someone has the balls/power to 'bully' them. Tough titties, that's capitalism. Innovate or 'die'.
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Because they can, moron.
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Dude these are content lawyers!!! Collectively they don't have the common sense of a lump of coal. They have no creativity. They are the children who always shouted "That's Mine! You can't have it" even when it wasn't theirs. They are the people who never learned that being wrong helps you learn and grow. They are people who lie for a living, have no scruples, and have no morals. They have no ability to adapt.
All in all, it would be better to sit in a room naked, with a TSA agent, wearing filthy blue gloves, that has just groped a naked homeless guy, that smells like cheese, than to try and help them. You should do the same. Please ...
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Pinning down the cause
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Eric Vermote
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You're wasting your time. We all know that's bull****, so either come up with something that makes sense, or go spew this at a less educated audience.
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